Willawaw Journal is an FREE online journal for poetry and art, published quarterly at the cardinal points of the year. Each issue features a poem prompt or mentor poem from one of our Northwest Poets Laureate (including Canada, Alaska, and possibly Australia–editors’ bias!) so that our readers and writers have a good measure of what we consider quality work. The poem prompt is provided to inspire our writers and artists–a jumping-off point. Play with the possibilities. The editors will do the same, providing some modeling for your explorations. Click here and scroll down for examples.
Themes
Each issue promotes a theme, specific to demographics or media:
Summer includes a special invitation to our youngest and oldest writers/artists (under 20 or over 70 years old– U20O70) whose voices may normally be underrepresented.
Fall calls for a hybrid of poetry and image in which the word is integral to the image or overlaid, as the artist chooses. Painting, printmaking, drawing, scratchboard and collage are some of the possible media. (Again, no photography please.)
Winter features audio recordings (and text) of the selected poems by the authors with an emphasis on voice or musicality—this is and oral tradition.
The Spring issue is open—send us your very best work.
This template may evolve at the editors’ discretion, so stay-tuned!
About Our Name
We love the sound and meaning of williwaw: a sudden gust of wind coming off the mountains to the sea. What a great impulse for a collection of poetry and art! But in deference to others who also liked the name, in its original spelling, we have chosen to write our name as it sounds, Will‘-a-waw. And if you remember to connect it to the word, journal, as in Willawaw Journal, you will avoid owl-like monsters and other distractions that might delay your arrival to our site.
The Editors
Our mission is to encourage readers to explore, and writers and artists to create, generating community where a diversity of voices is welcome.